The Oregonian

Clark County News

11/19/02 HOLLEY GILBERT

VANCOUVER -- When Matthew D. George decided to kiss his young rattlesnake, he made a near-fatal mistake. From Our Advertiser

"Snakes are attacked every day in the wild, and the first thing they see is a predator's eyes," said Richard Ritchey of Sandy, who has worked with reptiles for 25 years.

"They're going to bite."

And bite the rattlesnake did -- right on George's upper lip.

The 21-year-old, unemployed Yacolt man was in serious condition Monday at Legacy Emanuel Hospital & Health Center.

He was in critical condition Sunday when LifeFlight brought him in. Richard Wilson, a paramedic with North Country Emergency Medical Service, called for the helicopter after he saw swelling from the venom spread so quickly up George's face and down his neck that he knew George's breathing was threatened.

Luckily, George lives about two minutes from North Country's main station in Yacolt, in northeastern Clark County.

"Had he lived out a little more, I strongly suspect he would not have survived because the swelling would have swelled his airway shut," Wilson said Monday.

Swelling aside, experts say another danger of rattlesnake venom is that it destroys cells, causing excessive bleeding and tissue death.

No emergency responders carry antivenin, the antitoxin for snake venom, Wilson said.

Fortunately, Emanuel and OHSU Hospital stock doses of an antivenin called Crofab. Emanuel usually gets one rattlesnake bite patient a year, and although George was the second for 2002, Emanuel had enough antivenin on hand to treat him, a hospital spokeswoman said.

The snake met its end when George's friend, Jim Roban, cut its head off, police said.

Roban couldn't be reached for comment Monday.

It was Wilson's second rattlesnake bite patient. He encountered his first while working in Eastern Washington.

Knowing rattlesnakes are not indigenous west of the Cascade Mountains, Wilson was skeptical when he responded to a call about 1:30 a.m. Sunday to the East Yacolt Road home that George shares with his father, Dale.

"I hadn't heard of a rattlesnake bite in years," Wilson said. "I didn't expect to find a rattlesnake bite. I still can hardly believe it."

George was showing off to Roban the young rattlesnake he'd brought home three or four weeks ago from the Arizona desert when the kiss turned sour, the Clark County Sheriff's Office reported. He was conscious, but upset when the paramedic arrived about four minutes later. Only his upper lip was slightly swollen.

But the snake's venom moved so quickly through his face's extensive blood vessel system that, two minutes later, George began to slip in and out of consciousness, Wilson said. His lip swelled to about five times its usual size, and within minutes the swelling engulfed his cheeks and ears and forced his eyes shut, he said.

Wilson inserted a tube down George's throat to keep his airway clear. Eventually, George's neck swelled to his chin, he said.

"He sustained a life-threatening dose," Wilson said.

The reason is that, unlike adults, young rattlesnakes can't control the amount of venom they inject, said Mary Esther Hart-Brown, who owns Hart's Reptile World in Canby.

Hart-Brown places the blame squarely on the human.

A rattlesnake "is meant to bite," she said. "That's how it makes its living.

"Obviously that person shouldn't have had that snake to begin with."

State law bars the unauthorized entry of nonnative animals, said Dennis Davidson, chief investigator for Clark County Animal Control.

To keep one, a person must obtain an annual license for $100 and submit an application that demonstrates he has proper training and can meet certain standards of care, Davidson said. Otherwise, the owner must get rid of the animal.

George did neither, Davidson said.

Nonpoisonous king snakes, rat snakes, boas and pythons can make good pets, Hart-Brown said. Rattlesnakes don't, generally.

She said six types of rattlesnakes live in the Arizona desert.

Ritchey of Sandy figures George picked up a Western diamondback, the most plentiful rattler found there.

Had it been a Mojave, "He'd be dead right now," he said.

Even if George had handled the young rattlesnake safely other times, each time can be a different story.

"It's a wild animal and totally unpredictable," Ritchey said. "If they didn't bite or protect themselves, they'd be extinct.

"So who's responsible? The one with the bigger brain." Holley Gilbert: 360-896-5721; 503-294-5900; holleygilbert@news.oregonian.com

-- Anonymous, November 19, 2002